Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Self-Help Society

Given that
capitalism cannot be transformed to meet human needs, humans will have to
transform themselves to meet capitalist needs. Gurus such as Achor or Zak
provide this philosophy with its optimistic, smiling face: I changed myself,
and so can you!But in the murky world of workfare 'behavioral activation'
programmes, it takes on a more punitive dimension. The idea of
'entrepreneurship' may summon up heroic visions of Steve Jobs, but for many
more people it means having to be entirely amenable to the fluctuating demands
of capital, on a quite fundamental and personal level. When professions such as
journalism become prefixed with the word 'entrepreneurial', this means one
thing only: augment yourself or die.